YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S7 E10 "A Royal Problem"

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • The episode can easily be seen as implying that Daybreaker was not a creation of Starlight's dream, but a manifestation of Celestia's own fears. Daybreaker all but ignores Starlight in favor of talking to Celestia, appears to have intimate knowledge of Celestia's mind and powers, and Celestia appears to take the things she says personally. Hence it can be speculated that, due to her inexperience using dream magic, Celestia ended up mixing some of her own subconscious thoughts into Starlight's dream, leading to the manifestation of Daybreaker. This interpretation is helped along by the fact that Luna inexplicably knows Daybreaker's name without Celestia ever mentioning it to her, possibly implying Luna has previously seen Daybreaker in her sister's nightmares.
  • Not to mention, the line of "you will never exist again" implies that Daybreaker might also be her subconscious temptation to drop the whole princess/mentor gig which all it did was to get her constantly jobbed throughout the series and return to the spotlight as a main character to solve all of the problems by herself rather than focusing on teaching the next generation in order live up to the pedestal her subjects placed her on...which is constantly hit from said jobbing.
  • Was Twilight's interest in what was going on borne from excitement and anticipation over Starlight being called by the cutie map? Or did she not trust Starlight and was worried she might do something rash? Or was her interest in the Princesses, in which case she was afraid of them fighting and the potential return of Nightmare Moon, or was she interested in finding out what the Princesses are like in private after she saw Celestia Beneath the Mask in the season premiere? Or perhaps she was jealous that the map didn't call her to help with a problem with the Princesses, and/or was intrigued by the first time it called someone outside the Mane Six.
  • Celestia is far more stoic about the rift between she and her sister than Luna is at the start (it's Luna's disingenuous remarks that makes Starlight think there's a problem). Perhaps the reason Celestia hasn't brought up anything is because she's worried that challenging Luna will cause more problems?
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Starlight Glimmer again.
    • Her role in the episode. Some felt that she was largely unnecessary for the plot and that the exact same story could have been done better if it had devoted the full attention to the royal sisters. Others felt that Starlight was not only a necessary catalyst for the episode, but that the majority of the events hinged on the princesses flung into Fish out of Water scenarios with Starlight running around trying to keep everything together.
    • Her temper getting the better of her and her resorting to magic as an out from the problem has been a recurring theme in her episodes. Here not only did that happen, but she used magic to switch the Princess' cutie marks, the exact same type of magic she used when she was evil. Cue cries that Starlight has really not learned her lesson after all this time. Defenders, however, point out that Starlight tried to approach the problem rationally and peacefully and only resorted to magic when the Princesses were shouting in each other's faces, and she seriously regretted her decision and had a nightmare about the consequences of it going badly, showing she has indeed grown (not to mention immediately realised it's not nearly as good an idea to make this ultimatum to the two Princesses of Cantelot).
  • Twilight's role in the episode, funny or cringe-worthy?
• Broken Base: It's more a behind the scenes issue, but it's still notable. The fact that it took 7 seasons for Celestia to finally get a focus episode is somewhat divisive. One side doesn't mind it, since it means more focus on the quality of the episode. The other side thinks the show could have reached greater heights if this type of plot was done sooner.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Daybreaker, Celestia's equivalent to Nightmare Moon — and yes, that includes coolness and hamminess. Not to mention it finally makes canon the long-time fan theory that Celestia has the potential to go evil like her sister did.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • A canonical evil version of Celestia called Daybreaker showing up as Celestia's suppressed dark thoughts in Starlight's nightmare gave rise to all kinds of ideas about what that could mean: When Celestia dispels the nightmare, she says "No, you're not! You are not real, and you will never exist again!" Is she referring to Daybreaker being manifested in the dream, or is the last part of the statement directed to Nightmare Moon? The only other option implies Daybreaker "existed" previously somehow...
  • The map calling Starlight opens up possibilities of ponies other than the Mane Six, like the CMC, being called to solve friendship problems throughout Equestria. This was proved canonical five episodes later in "Triple Threat", where the map called Spike (thus confirming that the map can call non-ponies too).
  • Of the various dream bubbles, the one with Derpy as royalty begs for exploration.
  • The idea that Celestia is holding back all the time. She controls the SUN. What could she be hiding in terms of power? And what could that mean if the Mane Six are taken out of the equation and she has to finally cut loose?
• Fan Nickname: Twilight as a Music Box Ballerina has been called "Twillerina" by some.
• Genius Bonus:
  • Luna has a nightmare about the foals she disappointed confronting her and her teeth suddenly falling out. Teeth falling out is a very common dream, and though interpretations vary, this is generally believed to represent feeling a loss of control.
  • Celestia remarks that raising the moon is easier than raising the sun; this would make sense considering the moon is much smaller, closer, and has far less mass than the sun. Although it pretty obvious that she already had experience since she had to raise both the sun and moon for a thousand years after banishing Nightmare Moon.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: When watching the movie, which Word of God says takes place after Season 7. When Canterlot is attacked, Celestia quickly tells Luna to go find the Queen of the Hippogriffs. After this episode, it shows that Celestia trusts her sister to take control and save Equestria in her place.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • A fan comic was created (it has since been removed) that featured Luna, Starlight, and an evil version of Celestia with Daybreaker's armor, cutie mark and mane. It also came out a solid two months before the episode.
  • One of the dream bubbles shows Twilight Sparkle flying with Rainbow Dash. At least one month before that, there was this video.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Fans have wanted an episode centering around Celestia or examining the Princesses' relationship for a very long time. As a result, a lot of folks were uninterested in Starlight's role in the episode.
• Narm Charm: "So much black. We get it, you're sad." In any other situation, the line would be pure narm, but coming from Daybreaker it's another stab against the feelings of isolation and doubt that led Luna to become Nightmare Moon.
• Older Than They Think: Luna doing Celestia's duties in her place is already used in the Micro series comic. In the case of the comic book, it was just a bet rather than a magically-enforced role swap, and the story was completely Luna-centered.
• Tainted by the Preview: The synopses stating Starlight Glimmer would deal with Celestia and Luna's friendship problem and swap their cutie marks was met with trepidation given her Spotlight-Stealing Squad tendencies made many fear she's cut into the highly anticipated Celestia and Luna focus and sounding like another case of her being undeservedly Easily Forgiven despite continuing to make the same mistakes.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Since Starlight's nightmare was based on her own insecurities and failures, it would have been a good time to bring back her old evil self to mock her instead of having Daybreaker do it.

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